Self-closing paste tube



July 18, 1933. J. GAGLIO SELF CLOSING PASTE TUBE Filed oci. 26, 1931INVENTOR cfobn G semi-liquid Patented July 18, 1933 PATENT OFFICE 101mammo, or rrr'rsnuae, camroanm SELF-CLOSING PASTE TUBE Applicationflledoctober 28, 1981. Serial No. 571,081.

This invention relates to tubes fromwhich astes, cream and the like aredispensed, such as shaving cream and tooth paste. Such tubes areordinarily provided with caps which are small and are apt to be droppedor mislaid, which permits the contents of the tube, at least near thetop, to cake and dry out.

It is therefore the principal object of my invention to provide a capand valve unit for such tubes, to take the place of the usual cap andarranged so that a squeezing pressure on the tube and its contents willcause the latter to open the valve and be exuded from the tube; whilewith the release of such pressure the valve will close of itself. Theoperator need therefore give no attention to the closing of the tube andthe contents cannot dry out, and the annoyance incident to the handlingof the usual tubes is therefore eliminated. The device is also arrangedso that it may be applied to ordinary tubes without making any change inthe latter. The device may be arranged so that the exuded material maybe either in a ribbon-like or circular form of the conventional size,irrespective of the size of the valve itself.

A further object of the invention is to produce a simple and inexpensivedevice and yet one which will be exceedingly effective for the purposefor which it is deslgned.

These objects I accomplish by means of such structure and relativearrangement of parts as will fully appear by a perusal of the followingspecification and claim.

In the drawing similar characters of reference indicate correspondingparts in-the several views:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a tooth paste characters of reference onthe drawing, the numeral 1 denotes a tube of the standard collapsiblecharacter provided at one end with a rigid circular outlet member ormouth 2. The usual closure cap is removed and its place taken by anothercap 3 whose bore 4 outward-1y of the mouth is substantially the samediameter as the exterior diameter of the mouth. This bore has a circularor disc valve 5 slidably mounted therein to engage the 63 outer end ofthe mouth and seal the outlet.

A compression spring 6 mounted in the cap behind the valve normallyholds the same seated against the outlet.

Between the closed position of the valve 65 and its fully openedposition (which is limited by a shoulder 7 formed in the cap) an outletport 8 is cut lengthwise in the cap to communicate with the bore 4. Inthe present instance this port is in the form of a longitudinal slot sothat the paste or cream 9 as. exuded from the tube will be in the formof a ribbon as shown at 10. Said port may be ofcircular form if desiredso that the exuded material will have a correspondin shape. The outersurface of the cap is pref erably depressed about the port as shown at11, thus tending to prevent the adhesion of the exuding material to theouter edges of the port and aiding in maintaining the mai erial in thedesired clean-cut ribbon-like orm.

To cause the cream or paste to be thus exuded it is only necessary tosqueeze the tube, thus exerting a pressure on its contents. Thispressure is transmitted to the valve, forcing the same open against theresistance of the spring. Upon the pressure being released the valvecloses of itself, the strength of the spring being suflicient toovercome the natura1 resistance or pressure of the cream.

From the foregoing description it will be readily seen that I haveproduced such a device as substantially fulfills the objects of theinvention as set forth herein.

While this specification sets forth in detail the present and preferredconstruction of the device, still in practice such deviations from suchdetail may be resorted to as do not form a departure from the spirit oftlHEZHOf and across the port to normally engage and close the outlet andto open communication between the port and outlet when such disc is inits outer position, and a shoulder in the cap to limit the outwardmovement of the valve so that the inner face of the valve will liesubstantially flush with the edge of the port farthest from the outletwhen the disc is in its outer position.

JOHN GAGLIO.

